It all started with a tanker accident. It was all over the news. Everyone thought it was just another oil spill. There were plenty of volunteers. Plenty of people wanting to help the poor defenseless animals. Plenty of victims. Within hours of the tanker accident, it started happening. The animals had gone crazy, they were scratching and biting the clean up volunteers. They said that it was an adverse effect to whatever was in that tanker.

Rescue workers were still trying to get the crew out of the ship. They could hear screaming inside. Screams to open the doors. But that’s when it all went to hell. As soon as they cut the door out.

There was 6 minutes of broadcast before it went silent. 6 minutes of screaming and agony. The ship crew attacked the rescue workers like rabid baboons. Breaking bones and tearing flesh. The people on the shore weren’t fairing any better. Those that had been attacked by animals were attacking everyone else. It was worse than any war zone report, it was sheer brutality, and yet the broadcast still went on for 6 minutes. 6 minutes and then blank faces. Nobody could explain what was happening. They tried to continue with regular news, the economy, the weather, a cute human interest story, but they couldn’t make us unsee what we saw.

I tried to continue with my regular existence but every time I switched on the news or walked by a news stand it was there. This big mystery. They had some explanations, some kind of infection, brain parasites, but it didn’t matter. It wasn’t an infection we were afraid of, it was them.

4 days after the initial report, a state of emergency was raised. And yet we’d all seen this before. Every zombie movie ever. People didn’t know who to trust. People were stockpiling food and weapons. Some tried to flee but it seems every zombie movie was right. They didn’t make it. 3 days later they arrived in my town.

I expected moans, shuffling corpses, dismemberment, but that’s where the movies lied. They ran through the streets, screaming. I remember running to my front door as fast as I could, locking, barricading, doing anything to make sure it would stay shut, and then I headed for the window. I was on the second story and I could see the carnage. They were unstoppable. They were aware.

A group of them made there way through a building across the street. They jumped straight through plate glass windows. Even the shards slicing through them made no difference, they just kept coming. My barricade wasn’t going to hold. I rushed around my flat, grabbing supplies and jamming them into the most secure room of the flat. I went back for one last look across the street, and I wish I hadn’t. In a second story window, my face met one of theirs. They knew where I was. I quickly dashed into the room and locked the door.

I don’t have any kind of panic room, or a secure basement, so the safest place I could think of was my bathroom. No windows, one door with a lock. I had filled my sink and bathtub full of water, So I could stay for a while. So I sat there in the dark room, with the distant screams in my ears.

I began to feel like I may have over-reacted, it had been 2 hours and no sign of them. It actually got quieter and I thought they had moved on. Maybe I could leave the room, get to the kitchen. Grab more food to wait it out. A crash came from the front door. The sound of someone running full force into the door and knocking down the barrier behind it. There was a couple more crashes before I knew they were inside. Rapid footsteps moving around the flat, a couple screams and then a bang on the wall beside me. My eyes were open to their widest, even in the pitch black darkness of the room. Another bang, and another. They knew I was there and they knew I was scared.

This was the zombie nightmare I had been expecting from the start. I had nowhere to run. There was only so much time before they would break in. I sat with my back to the door, hoping my extra weight would make it harder for them to get in. And then it got worse.
“why don’t you open the door?”

A voice on the opposite side of the door. No screams or moans, just a quiet, whispery voice. And then more of them.

“we’ve come for you.”
“you’ll be happier if you open the door”
“it’s not so bad…”

The whispery voices, became a cacophony of noise trying to persuade me, to break me, to fool me. I had heard that the moaning of zombies would drive people insane but this was worse, a siren call. I sat in the darkness and hoped and prayed that they’d get bored. But they don’t get bored and they don’t leave. I managed to use the mirror to peak under the door, only to be greeted by horrible unblinking eyes, blood smeared faces, screams and more horrible whispers. That was two days ago…

I think the only thing left for me to do would be to break the mirror somehow, then use the larger shards of broken glass as weapons and try to fight my way out. I’d almost certainly perish instantaneously, but hey. Better to go down fighting, and all that.

The I am Legend book was originally like this. Every night, they’d call from outside, even his old neighbour…

VA:F [1.9.22_1171]

Rating: +1 (from 1 vote)

Corina

Actually the book “The Rising” started the aware zombies fad many years ago. Most of zombie pop culture as we see it today — in movies, shows, video games, other books — was inspired directly by this one. Check it out :D

VA:F [1.9.22_1171]

Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)

Reverence

Reminds me of left 4 dead, except instead of screaming “TEAKETTLE!” and basing in your brains, they coax you out.

VA:F [1.9.22_1171]

Rating: +9 (from 13 votes)

Anonymous

BUT WHO WAS ZOMBIE?

VA:F [1.9.22_1171]

Rating: -34 (from 70 votes)

Anonymous

BUT THEN WHO WAS PHONE

VA:F [1.9.22_1171]

Rating: 0 (from 26 votes)

ggg

shitting bricks. a very good one chris stewart.

VA:F [1.9.22_1171]

Rating: +17 (from 17 votes)

Hops Diggins

good work. i like it.

VA:F [1.9.22_1171]

Rating: +7 (from 7 votes)

Gegner

Agree with #3. Aware zombies makes it even more terrifying than regular zombies. The fact that they are trying to convince him it isn’t so bad is just beyond disturbing to me. It’s like zombie cultists or something. Very freaky.

Wow, it’s like 28 days later, or Dawn of the Dead (remake) or Stephen King’s Cell. Not so much an original concept of aware zombies, but at the end it took an unexpected twist. I liked it for the ending more than anything else.

VA:F [1.9.22_1171]

Rating: +14 (from 18 votes)

Lachesis

Rather good, though there is one issue…having taken refuge in the bathroom, without taking any writing materials or a laptop inside, how would the protagonist have sent this story in the first place?

VA:F [1.9.22_1171]

Rating: -12 (from 28 votes)

Wolf

They mentioned grabbing supplies. The computer could have been one of them.

VA:F [1.9.22_1171]

Rating: +11 (from 15 votes)

Edward

Since when are stories supposed to be written accounts by the main character? It gives no hint that the main character is writing down his thoughts.

VA:F [1.9.22_1171]

Rating: +4 (from 10 votes)

Anonymous

Clearly, the author transcribed the story from one of the zombies. He managed to capture a zombie. Not only was it able to send out it’s siren’s call, but was able to relate the story of what had happened during the first week or so of the infection’s start, from his own perspective. There would have been more, but the author’s pencil broke under tight grip he had upon it as the horror unfolded. This was all he managed to write down. You can even see the line at the bottom where the pencil snapped. So stop jumping to conclusions.

VA:F [1.9.22_1171]

Rating: +18 (from 18 votes)

eric

He’s going to be killed by SENTIENT ZOMBIES. Obviously he can tell his story somehow being sentient and all.

VA:F [1.9.22_1171]

Rating: +1 (from 1 vote)

Gehrin

@Lachesis

Well… who knows. Maybe he liked to write while he was on his porcelain throne?

At any rate, it isn’t really supposed to make sense how the message got through. It’s just like the Holder’s series: who the hell wrote the instruction manual for that one?

VA:F [1.9.22_1171]

Rating: +11 (from 11 votes)

Anonymous

Those kinda seem like the Holder’s, or someone with them, wrote the stories down and uploaded them to get people to try it. That’s what I think, anyways :P

VA:F [1.9.22_1171]

Rating: +1 (from 1 vote)

Anonymousity x 2

*claps* Very well done, I read it first in the forums, and now here. I’ll take a break from reading the forums, just not to see incoming pastas.

VA:F [1.9.22_1171]

Rating: +3 (from 3 votes)

Comment Leaver

This was realllllly good. Very well done, it really drew out the tension until the very last sentence, and the revamp on the zombie idea was really nice as well.

VA:F [1.9.22_1171]

Rating: +8 (from 8 votes)

ArmTheHobos

A fairly spectacular pasta. I think the concept for this one would make a fairly creepy movie, if not a shit-castle-walls videogame.

VA:F [1.9.22_1171]

Rating: +4 (from 4 votes)

TwistedIllusions

Excellent! This was absolutely amazing! It’s very scary. Aware zombies would make us living f’d in the a.

VA:F [1.9.22_1171]

Rating: +2 (from 2 votes)

Aguythathatesrap

Very good! I like this pasta! Very well written and the zombi8es are trying to convince you to become one of them! How scary!

VA:F [1.9.22_1171]

Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)

Lilhorn

I likes this new and creative take on the classic zombie survival thing. You did very well, Mister Stewart.

VA:F [1.9.22_1171]

Rating: +2 (from 2 votes)

Sigma

What kind of stupid person would walk out into a crowd of zombies just because they sound nice?
Also, have you been fighting the Robobrains in Fallout 3? “Would you prefer the laser or the flamethrower? I hope after this we can still be friends…”

VA:F [1.9.22_1171]

Rating: -6 (from 8 votes)

Anonymous

Imagine knowing everyone you care about is trying to convince you to do something. Imagine be the only one alive, wishing you weren’t. Death can be better than madness.

VA:F [1.9.22_1171]

Rating: +12 (from 12 votes)

Anonymous

Beautifully said.

VA:F [1.9.22_1171]

Rating: +1 (from 1 vote)

PL

Aware zombies or… Obama supporters?

VA:F [1.9.22_1171]

Rating: +10 (from 36 votes)

LOL

Lol

VA:F [1.9.22_1171]

Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)

Bagel-chan

awesome story
The coaxing -really- freaks me out!
“IT NOT THAT BAD, WE JUST EAT YOU 8D”

VA:F [1.9.22_1171]

Rating: +15 (from 15 votes)

Nathara

ffffffffffffffffffffff

VA:F [1.9.22_1171]

Rating: -3 (from 11 votes)

anon

uuuuuuuuuuu

VA:F [1.9.22_1171]

Rating: -1 (from 9 votes)

anon

So they bust down his lightly barricaded front door, and jump through plate glass windows, but when it comes to bathroom doors, they just wait for days until they can coax their target out? A bit hard to believe.

Age-Sensitive Content Warning

This site has scary stories that may include violent or controversial themes and foul language. Consider us an R-Rated website; the stories here are created and curated with an 18+ audience in mind.

Our "age gate" overlay plugin was malfunctioning and locking out people before they could enter their DOB, and for others the overlay was simply never going away even after they entered a valid date. We've temporarily disabled it while we try and iron out the issue, however that DOES NOT MEAN that this site is now child-friendly.

If you are under 18, you still MUST show your parents this website and ask for their permission before browsing.

If you are a parent and have discovered this site in your child's browsing history, please visit the FAQ for a better idea of what this site is about. If you find that this site is inappropriate for your child, please look into ways to block the site on your child's devices.